1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sample processing system that performs sample processing by use of a plurality of sample processing apparatuses.
2. Background of the Related Art
There have been known sample processing systems that transport samples to a plurality of sample processing apparatuses by means of transporting apparatuses.
For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0066996 discloses a blood specimen analyzing system including: a host computer that manages measurement orders of samples; a plurality of measurement units that measure blood specimens; a specimen transporting apparatus that transports specimen containers to the measurement units; a system control apparatus that controls transporting operations of the specimen transporting apparatus based on measurement orders received from the host computer; an information processing unit that processes measurement data outputted from the measurement units, displays analysis results of the blood specimens, and transmits them to the host computer. Each of the information processing unit and the system control apparatus is provided with an input unit such as a keyboard to be operated by a user, an image display unit, and a computer. Each of the information processing unit and the system control apparatus is composed of a combination of the input unit, the image display unit, and the computer. Further, there is a case where a plurality of information processing units are provided in the system.
In a laboratory in which such an analysis system disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0066996 is installed, there are cases where the information processing unit and the system control apparatus are not used by the user so often. In this case, with the blood specimen analyzing system according to U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0066996, there arises a problem that space in the laboratory is limited due to the input unit and the image display unit provided for each of the information processing unit and the system control apparatus, although they are not used so often.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problem. An object of the present invention is to provide a sample processing system that can effectively utilize space in a laboratory.